THE undignified sight of wheelchairs being carried up and down the steep steps at St Luke's may soon be a thing of the past.

THE undignified sight of wheelchairs being carried up and down the steep steps at St Luke's may soon be a thing of the past.

The town centre church has applied for planning permission to construct an access ramp costing between £70,000 and £100,000.

Most of the cost, some £65,000, has come from a grant from New Heart for Heywood.

The rest has been raised at a variety of fund-raising events, some large, some small.

Heywood's Anglican team rector, the Rev Geoff Turner, said he hoped work would start later this year.

The ramp is to be constructed around the western end of the church from Church Street winding round to the York Street entrance beneath the bell tower.

The stone work will, as far as possible, match the existing stone.

Two benches, presently looking out on to a small grassed area, will have to be re-positioned and will face the church, rather than the traffic lights, when the work is completed.

Mr Turner said: "It's a major job. In the past disabled people have only been able to get into church with a great degree of difficulty, surrounded as it is by long steep steps."

"Many people have not even attempted it, and stayed away."

"Some have struggled but carrying a wheelchair up and down the steps is not very dignified."

Mr Turner said when the ramp was in place it would enable disabled people across the wider community to attend not only church services, but weddings and deanery events, thereby making fuller use of the building and its facilities.

It would also be welcomed by funeral directors, who would be able to park the hearse on Church Street and carry, or wheel, coffins round the western end of the church, rather than negotiate the nine or 10 steps up to the main York Street porch.

Planning permission for the ramp, which will also be sought from Manchester Diocese, is needed because St Luke's, a Heywood landmark, is a Grade Two listed building.